Strategic Communications Lead

The IALD is a professional association supporting architectural lighting designers globally, with members in over 60 countries. We are seeking a strategic communications lead to join our team – someone who can hone our messaging to speak effectively to the wide range of members and stakeholders we engage with across our verticals, including membership, advocacy, volunteering, conferences, continuing education, and certification.

Beyond understanding and crafting the IALD voice, we are looking for someone who deeply understands communication mechanics: which channels suit which messages, and how to back those decisions with data. You will be confident gathering and analysing data to drive continuous improvement in our communications. The post holder will be responsible for creating an annual communications plan, then designing, coordinating, and implementing it across the verticals within our organisation.

Day to day, you can expect to:

• Own the annual communications plan and the calendar that drives it.
• Develop messaging for member recruitment, retention, advocacy campaigns, and volunteer engagement, education, recognition, etc.
• Build and grow a communications team of internal and external resources.
• Produce or commission the output — copy, graphics, email, social, web — working with internal staff and external contributors.
• Measure what is working: open rates, engagement, conversion, member sentiment, number of followers, etc., and feed those back into the plan.
• Partner with our executive team and programme leads to keep messaging consistent across the organisation.

The role requires a clear vision for the strategic plan and the pragmatism to move it forward with limited time and resources. You should also know the tools of your trade and be willing to get your hands dirty producing the output yourself — graphics, copy, and everything in between. A deep understanding of social media, segmentation and automation tools to increase engagement across platforms is essential.

8-10 years of experience in strategic communications, marketing, or a related field, ideally within a values-driven, membership or subscription business. You can point to communications plans you have owned end-to-end, and to data you have used to sharpen them. You write well, you can produce or direct visual output, and you are comfortable working independently in a small team.

The IALD staff team is small but mighty, and fully remote. Cultural fit is key to collaborating well at a distance. We only hire candidates based in Connecticut, Maine, Colorado, Florida, or Illinois, and you must have the right to work in the US and your state of residence. You should have a safe and comfortable place to work from. We will provide a mobile phone and a laptop — Mac or PC, your choice plus any other tech you might need.

The IALD is an equal‑opportunity employer. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, and we are committed to building a team that reflects the global community we serve.